Love Story
by The Girl in the Red Jacket
Summary: Waves in the moonlight. A little story about Theoan when he first fell in love. Cameo by Faramir and Elboron. Helps if you've read Requiem first.


_Disclaimer: I own nothing._

_Author's Note: Theoan wanted a story of his own so here it is. Cameos made by Faramir and Elboron. Theoan is 22 in this, it is a prequel to _**Requiem **_and there may be a few of those!_

**Love Story  
**  
"Hush, you, or we shall be caught..."  
  
"You are sure you know where you are going? It is so dark out tonight..."  
  
"I know the way. You are not afraid, are you? We can go back still."  
  
"Not for the world, I..."  
  
"Omph!"  
  
She giggled, standing on the bank as he picked himself out of the stream and stepped onto the sand, water squishing in his soft boots.  
  
"Well we have found it," Theoan announced, shrugging gracelessly.  
  
She giggled again and he helped her step down from the bank without getting her own shoes wet. He flushed as their faces came close and her blue eyes smiled up at him before she blushed too and looked away.  
  
Then she laughed, taking away the awkwardness they both felt and reached down to take off her shoes, leaving them by the bank. She grabbed Theoan's hand and they ran, giggling like children, towards the waves they could not see but could hear breaking against the shore.  
  
They saw the water in the moonlight but still they ran toward it and into it when the reached the waves, the spray from the splashes of their racing legs flying up and touching their faces like teardrops. They stopped before the water reached their waists, pants and skirts sodden.  
  
She turned to him, smiling, laughter in her blue eyes. He flushed and grinned back, his hands catching the tendrils of copper hair, made near silver gold in the blue moonlight, and she seemed to move closer to him without taking a step.  
  
They kissed and broke away laughing with breathless joy and kissed again, arms about each other.  
  
Theoan felt his lips leave hers and a great grin stole across his face and he laughed, feeling a bit delirious, a bit drunk on moonlight. He caught her up in his arms and twirled her about, breathing in her laughter as they danced to the whispering of the stars and the beat of the waves.  
  
They made their way back to the shore, laughing and clutching at each other when they slipped and merely for closeness. They lay side by side on the sand.  
  
"Your boots are going to be ruined," she said teasingly.  
  
"And your dress," Theoan told her.  
  
"Be glad I wore an old plain house dress then, else you would be buying me a new one tomorrow!" She giggled, her head turned, sand clinging to her cheek. His curly blonde hair seemed silver blue in the moonlight. "I am glad you invited me here tonight, Theo."  
  
"I am glad you came, Halfoneth," Theoan replied softly, raising himself on his elbows and smiling at her before dipping his head back. "My father used to bring me here with my brother and sisters when we were younger."  
  
"Your father? The Prince of Ithilien brought his children out in the middle of the night to splash in the waves?" Halfoneth asked incredously.  
  
"Aye, he used to sneak out with his brother and cousins and do the same thing! My father likes to share such things with us," Theoan closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath, the sea air feeling as if it was seeping into his very bones. "Elboron and I learned the stars here, sitting beside him. It was one of the only times for which Boro would sit still during his entire childhood!"  
  
"I can see that of your brother!" Halfoneth giggled and threw her head back to see the stars as well. "For myself my grandfather taught me sitting upon the roof of our house. My mother was very cross with him the next morning for it."  
  
Theoan chuckled. "So was mine, whenever we snuck out, though I do not believe for one moment he kept this place from her, I simply do not wish to think about it!"  
  
"Nor I!" Halfoneth laughed and moved closer, resting her cheek against him. "We shall be washing sand from these clothes for months, you and I!"  
  
"Ah well," Theoan grinned and shook his head, spraying her with the sand that had clumped in his hair.  
  
She shrieked, "You dolt!"  
  
"Oof!" Theoan felt the air go out of him for a moment as she landed a solid thump on his middle. "Lady, you shall bruise me!"  
  
She snorted, a most unladylike sound, "Perhaps your pride..."  
  
"Worry not, between my brother and my sisters that is always very much deflated," Theoan told her.  
  
"Hmph." Halfoneth settled, resting her head against his shoulder. "They are beautiful, though, the stars. Are they the same in Ithilien?"  
  
Theoan swallowed, his mouth gone suddenly dry at her closeness. He forgot, sometimes, that she had never left the shores of Dol Amroth. "They are."  
  
"So when you return to your home we will still have them to share," Halfoneth smiled.  
  
Theoan shifted just slightly. "Let us not speak of that."  
  
"It is true, though, you are leaving soon," Halfoneth replied.  
  
Theoan looked away. It was true but he did not enjoy thinking of it. In two weeks time he would return to Minas Tirith with his family, save for Eirien who had remained at home with her husband, and, from there, they would return to Ithilien. He knew his father was anxious to return, would likely have never left had the King not all but ordered him to take a vacation lest he overwork himself again. The Steward was planning to do the same to his King soon after their return.  
  
"I would remain here with you for the rest of my days, if you but wished me to," Theoan said softly.  
  
"Is that a proposal, prince of my heart," Halfoneth inquired, blue eyes hiding a hint of surprise beneath long lashes.  
  
"Would you have it be one?" Theoan asked.  
  
She looked away, her breath catching then releasing slowly like a wave clinging to the sand. "Yes, with all my heart, but not yet."  
  
Theoan nodded, knowing his own heart enough to know his feelings were similar. He doubted not that he had found the one who he would spend the rest of his life delighting but...he was not yet ready for all that marriage entailed, not yet. "I will wait for the time you are ready to hear me ask for your hand then, I will wait as long as you wish it."  
  
"You leave soon," she murmured again. "You will not forget me? Your heart will not be lost to some nobleman's daughter in your homeland?"  
  
"I have no heart to lose, for mine rests firmly in your hand, my darling," Theoan said. "I would trade not one of your smiles for the hand of the fairest being in our Kingdom or any other."  
  
"A good thing too, for the King would not take kindly to you stealing away his wife!" Halfoneth laughed. "And you will write to me often, so I may hear your honeyed words from off a page until we meet again?"  
  
"I will write you once, nay! Twice a day if you wish it," Theoan answered. "And they may be honeyed words but they are sincere."  
  
"That I would never doubt," Halfoneth took his hand. "Do you love me, Theoan?"  
  
"Very much," Theoan told her. "And you me?"  
  
"Yes." And she kissed him.

* * *

"That move is perfectly legal..."  
  
"You have been saying that since you were a child and it never has been, not in Gondor."  
  
"A point was awarded in the tournament this past spring."  
  
"Then the judge was a fool or of Rohan. Take your move and stop trying to distract me. It has never worked and it will never work."  
  
Theoan grimaced. He had planned to enter by the kitchen doors so to avoid meeting anyone, whether they be the Prince of Dol Amroth or a guard or, especially, a member of his family. He should have realized, he now thought, that the kitchens were warmest, and closest to drink and food and so, naturally, they were where his father and Elboron would retreat for their nightly chess game.  
  
He could see them sitting at a plain table, a half full wine glass by his father's elbow and a mug by Elboron's. The cane Elboron was using was propped up against the table leg, and his leg rested on a cushioned footstool. The injury had been acquired not in battle, to Elboron's great chagrin, but at a review of the cadets, one of the little ones from class practising nearby had made a poorly aimed shot and the arrow...well, Elboron would not be forgetting it anytime soon, not only because the injury was bad enough to lay him up for a time which he had taken to join his family.  
  
Elboron's hand was on a rook, his whole concentration on the game, as was his father's. Now, then was the time to sneak away and find another entrance...  
  
The floorboards creaked beneath his foot and Theoan winced, suppressing a frustrated groan. Near twin sets of grey eyes looked up from the table, Elboron's hand still upon his rook. Theoan flushed.  
  
They had spotted him. He knew they would if he made a sound and he had no choice but the enter and face them, still half soaked and sandy.  
  
Elboron grinned widely. "I trust you had a good night, little brother."  
  
"I trust Halfoneth was walked home safely," Faramir added, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly. He very much liked the girl, no, young woman, he reminded himself, young woman his son was so taken with.  
  
"She was and I...we did," Theoan replied, feeling as if he were a toddler again and had been caught raiding the pantry with his older brother.  
  
"I am very glad to hear it. She is a fine girl, Theo," Faramir's eyes twinkled with merriment and he smoothed a chuckle for the sake of his son's feelings. "You will want to change those clothes before you catch cold."  
  
Theoan nodded, "Yes father."  
  
"Then come and have a drink with us," Elboron offered and Theoan could see teasing lurking in his eyes. Oh, his brother would not let him forget this for a very long time. "I am just going to trounce father in chess..."  
  
"You shall do no such thing," Faramir told him, winking at his youngest son before glaring in mock severity at his eldest. Elboron smirked. "I shall have you in three moves."  
  
"Ha! You are overconfidant, old man," Elboron told him. He pointed the rook at his father before setting it in its new place.  
  
"Make haste, Theo, your brother is about to learn a well deserved lesson in humility," Faramir called after his youngest son as the boy, no young man, disappeared down the hallway leading to his chambers. 


End file.
